Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and Vivian tried to figure out how to care for Vivian’s weak, unruly Evil Spirit clone, discovering that she ate raw meat and could not communicate. At night, Vivian planned to move the clone to the basement, while Hao Ren suggested letting her stay by the mouse hole under a binding spell.

• Hao Ren brought the caged mini-Vivian home, and the group debated what she needed to eat.
• Vivian tested leftover food, but the Evil Spirit rejected it until Izax sensed her hunger for flesh and blood and she devoured raw meat.
• Vivian agreed to care for the clone, while Roll continued mistaking her for prey.
• That night, Hao Ren found Vivian watching the noisy clone and learned she quieted down when staring at a mouse hole.
• Vivian said she trusted Hao Ren to handle the troubling presence in her soul, and Hao Ren suggested binding the clone so she could stay by the mouse hole instead of being caged.

Hao Ren and his household adapted to the harmless but troublesome little Evil Spirit’s daily attacks and routines. A call from Bai Huo brought a lead on Athena’s research materials: a surviving attendant of Zeus may have carried them away after Olympus fell.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and the others settled into a routine of letting the little Evil Spirit attack them, eat, and retreat to her mouse hole.
• The little Evil Spirit attacked Doudou and the household members before Vivian caught her after she jumped into a wok.
• Hao Ren used a blood-soaked paper ball to distract the little Evil Spirit while Vivian returned to cooking.
• Bai Huo called Hao Ren and reported that an archived investigation described a surviving attendant of Zeus escaping Olympus with records and ancient artifacts, including Athena’s research materials.

Hao Ren met Bai Huo at a supernatural gathering disguised as a comics convention and obtained Demon Hunter records about Olympus’s survivors. The records linked a fugitive attendant, a blood-red scepter, and missing ritual documents to Vivian’s powers and studies of the Original Sin, leaving Hao Ren to investigate the surviving evidence.

• Hao Ren went with Vivian and Lily to the comics convention, where Bai Huo explained that many attendees were supernatural beings and that the gathering was being monitored.
• Bai Huo led Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily to a private rest room and showed them Demon Hunter records about hunts for survivors of Olympus.
• Bai Huo described an attendant who repeatedly escaped Demon Hunter hunts while wielding a blood-red scepter that caused fatal bleeding and disease.
• Vivian recognized that the scepter’s powers resembled her own, and Hao Ren realized Olympus’s leaders had studied her abilities as well as worshipping her to counter the Original Sin.
• Bai Huo revealed that the fugitive had carried missing documents connected to Athena and Olympus’s final ritual studies, and had sought the Countess of the Red Moon’s protection.

Hao Ren and Vivian learned that a Zeus attendant who had escaped with a divine artifact linked to Vivian might still be alive, and Hesperis found a lead in northern France. The group reached the forest where the attendant had once hidden and prepared to investigate.

• Bai Huo told Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily that the Zeus attendant and twelve Demon Hunters had disappeared in a magical explosion, though the attendant might have faked his death.
• Hao Ren sent the scrolls' information to the Shadow Council, and Hesperis soon reported that the attendant had once lived in an isolated village in northern France.
• Hao Ren and Vivian decided to investigate with Hesperis and Lily, bringing Vivian's unruly little Evil Spirit along.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily teleported to a forest near the French border, where the little Evil Spirit was left trembling from the journey.
• Hesperis met them in the forest and explained that the missing attendant had been an old acquaintance; Hao Ren then led the group toward the place where he had hidden.

Hao Ren and his companions reached a remote village that Hesperis had last visited three centuries earlier, after learning that the hidden survivor they sought was Hercules, also known as Fernand. They entered the village, which had remained unchanged and cut off from the outside world, and were greeted by an old man.

• Hesperis told Hao Ren and Vivian that she had not visited the settlement in three centuries and revealed that the servant they sought was Hercules, who had used the alias Fernand.
• Lily and Vivian reasoned that Hercules's strength and Zeus's trust explained how he had survived and escaped Olympus with an Ancient Divine Artifact and research materials.
• A tiny Vivian startled Hesperis by flying at her and firing energy arrows, so Hao Ren caught her and placed her in a glass jar.
• Hesperis spotted the village ahead and was surprised it still existed, while Vivian and the Data Terminal detected signs of an unusual spatial disturbance.
• Hao Ren and his companions entered the unchanged village, where villagers gathered to stare at them and an old man approached to welcome them in French.

Hao Ren and his companions found Narim, a village that seemed frozen in time, and agreed to stay after learning other visitors had arrived. At the village’s dinner gathering, Vivian recognized one of the outsiders as familiar.

• Hao Ren asked the village chief about Fernand, but the chief said no one matching his description had lived in or visited Narim.
• The chief invited the group to stay, mentioning that several other visitors had arrived a few days earlier, so Hao Ren and his companions decided to investigate.
• Lily and Hesperis noticed that Narim lacked modern objects and that its buildings had remained unchanged for three centuries, leading the group to suspect a space-time distortion linked to Hercules.
• The village chief led Hao Ren and his companions to a lively communal dinner, where they spotted the other visitors.
• Vivian stared at one of the outsiders and told Hao Ren that the person looked familiar.

Hao Ren reunited with Pierre and met several other outsiders living in the village, where the villagers welcomed them with a feast. Pierre hinted that the village held a troubling secret, leaving Hao Ren wary as the newcomers praised their life there and showed little desire to leave.

• Hao Ren recognized Pierre, the Supernatural Detective he had met before, among the village’s other guests.
• Pierre introduced Wang Kevin, Wang Kaiwu, and Catherine, who had arrived in the village at different times and wore unusually worn clothes.
• Village Chief Winston began a feast for the guests, and the villagers discreetly watched Hao Ren’s group.
• Wang Kevin and his companions praised the village and said they were content to stay, while Pierre warned the group to eat slowly.
• When Lily asked whether the guests planned to go home, Winston and Pierre redirected the conversation, and Pierre nodded to Hao Ren as if signaling that they would talk later.

After the villagers’ feast, Hao Ren’s group learned from Pierre that the village was a cursed land that trapped visitors and slowly twisted their minds. Pierre explained how long he and the others had been trapped, leaving Hao Ren’s group to investigate the curse and find a way out.

• Hao Ren’s group returned to the longhouse, where the Data Terminal found that the strange food had caused them no harm.
• Pierre slipped away from the village celebration and warned Hao Ren’s group that the land prevented people from leaving.
• Hao Ren introduced Hesperis and Lily to Pierre, who was amazed to meet the legendary descendant of Olympus.
• Pierre said he had been trapped for two months, the Wang Brothers for about a year, and Catherine’s mind had been twisted until she believed she belonged to the village.
• Pierre explained that he had come seeking ancient relics and had survived by taking potions, while Vivian warned him that he seemed destined to stumble into deadly incidents.

Pierre explained how the village’s curse trapped newcomers and gradually turned them into villagers, then revealed his theory that an ancient witchcraft ritual involving a stolen magical artifact caused it. Hao Ren and his companions learned the hermit was Hercules and planned to investigate the ruined manor, but Pierre advised waiting until dawn.

• Pierre told Hao Ren and Vivian that newcomers gradually lost their memories and became villagers, and that the fence led back into the village.
• Pierre described how an exiled noble family stole a powerful artifact from a hermit, poisoned him, and fought him before the manor burned down.
• Pierre theorized that the dying hermit's anger corrupted the artifact and cursed the village so no one could leave.
• Hao Ren revealed that the hermit was Hercules, and Vivian concluded the missing hero and the curse were connected to the noble family and artifact.
• Pierre pointed out where the family's ruined manor lay and said he believed it held the key to lifting the curse.
• Hao Ren proposed going to the manor, but Pierre advised waiting until dawn because the village would change.

At dawn, Hao Ren's group found the cursed village dormant and learned that its villagers were trapped in a living-dead state. They escaped the village's boundary and headed toward the noble manor, suspecting the village was a cage for something dangerous.

• At dawn, Hao Ren and the others saw the village fall silent, with its villagers lying in their homes in a barely living state.
• Hao Ren tested the village boundary and found that crossing it triggered a renewed spatial barrier, while Pierre remained trapped inside.
• Hao Ren gave Pierre a communicator and promised the group would return after investigating the curse.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Hesperis, and Lily forced their way out of the village and set off toward the noble manor.
• Hao Ren and Vivian speculated that the village was a cage, and Hesperis pointed out that the manor was nearby.

Hao Ren and his companions explored a ruined estate to look for clues, while an undead woman warned them away from a dangerous secret. After the Data Terminal restored a portrait, the voice revealed that the woman depicted was herself.

• Hao Ren scanned the estate and tower, then used the God Slayer Sword to clear a path to the ruins.
• An unseen undead woman warned Hao Ren and his companions to leave, but Hao Ren entered the main house anyway.
• Hao Ren found signs of an old fire and asked the Data Terminal to restore a weathered portrait.
• The Data Terminal reconstructed the portrait of a noblewoman, and the undead voice admitted that she had been beautiful when alive.

Hao Ren and his companions entered a mystic realm around the abandoned estate, where they uncovered clues about what the village had contained and the noble family that settled there. A damaged journal revealed that the family came to help Hercules while fleeing the Demon Hunter Order, contradicting Pierre’s investigation and information from Bai Huo.

• The estate’s surroundings darkened, and an undead voice warned Hao Ren’s group that they had crossed a boundary and could not turn back.
• Hao Ren’s group searched the main house as the Data Terminal reconstructed its former appearance and revealed a blood message reading, “It’s about to come out.”
• Lily dug a charred skeleton from the rubble, and Hao Ren found a partly burned journal made of enchanted black goatskin beneath it.
• The Data Terminal restored journal entries saying the family had moved there to hide from the Order and had sought out Hercules, who was in a dire condition.
• Vivian identified the Order as the Demon Hunter Order, and Hao Ren noted that Bai Huo’s intelligence had omitted the family’s connection to it.

Hao Ren and the others reconstructed how Hercules’s allies had opened a rift to a dark power while trying to control his divine artifact. After the undead sighed, the ruined mansion around them reversed its decay, leaving them inside its restored, inhabited past.

• Hao Ren and Vivian pieced together that a powerful family had come at Hercules’s request to help contain the corruption from his divine artifact.
• The family’s attempt to extract the artifact’s power opened a rift to a dark realm, and its members concealed the growing danger until it spiraled out of control.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed what the boundary and the sealed evil power might mean, while Lily’s guess provoked the tiny Evil Spirit inside the can.
• The tiny Evil Spirit suddenly thrashed without a target, and the undead let out a long sigh.
• The ruins collapsed amid a storm, then rapidly restored themselves, leaving Hao Ren inside a brightly lit aristocratic residence with voices nearby.

Hao Ren and his companions entered an alternate space where the mansion remained intact and echoes of the past revealed its former inhabitants. They learned that the mansion had belonged to a group of Demon Hunters and that an artifact had brought a dangerous force through the boundary.

• Hao Ren and his companions found themselves in an overlapping space and heard past conversations echoing through the mansion.
• Hesperis explained that the mansion existed in both spaces and that the alternate forest had become a barren wasteland.
• Vivian suggested that an artifact had caused the space to rupture and overlap.
• An echo revealed that Hercules had been contaminated by an artifact fragment and was trying to hold back a force breaking through the boundary.
• The group realized that the mansion's former residents, including Master Mohabun and Hathaway, had been Demon Hunters.

Hao Ren and his companions uncovered evidence that Demon Hunters had broken with their Order and investigated the magic tower where their past echoed through time. They found an aged Demon Hunter seated at the top, and a woman’s voice warned them not to disturb the watcher.

• Hao Ren realized the mansion’s former residents were Demon Hunters who had allied with Hercules, and he suspected a divine artifact had freed them from their innate enmity.
• Hao Ren led the group to the tower after hearing an echo of Mohabun forbidding Xivil from seeing Hercules or touching the divine artifact.
• Hao Ren and his companions entered the tower and heard echoes describing a prison being built, Xivil’s disappearance, and the burden left to an old friend and Hathaway.
• Hao Ren found an aged Demon Hunter sitting by a window with a Silver Longsword across his legs, and a female voice told him not to disturb the watcher.

Hao Ren’s group met Hathaway, a ghost from a band of Demon Hunters who had once fought Hercules, and convinced her that the outside world had changed. Hathaway explained how the hunters had discovered the truth behind their hostility and revealed that the group had built a prison for a raging Nightmare Lord, while the artifact’s core had been stolen from an even older power.

• Hao Ren, Hesperis, and Vivian introduced themselves to Hathaway and explained their search for Hercules’s artifact.
• Hao Ren described the end of the Demon Hunter–Otherworldly Being war and the changes in Kolperth until Hathaway agreed to trust them at least halfway.
• Hathaway revealed that she and eleven other Demon Hunters had fought Hercules for ten days, discovered their hostile impulses had vanished, and secretly pursued the truth after making a truce with him.
• Hathaway explained that the group had built a prison for a raging Nightmare Lord and that the artifact’s core had been stolen by Olympus from an older, more powerful being.

Hathaway explained that Hercules’s divine weapon contained a core connected to a dark world, and that its leaking power caused the curse and threatened the real world. She and her companions sealed Hercules and the weapon in a parallel space-time, but the chapter ended with a rumble from the village after the little evil spirit began thrashing in Hao Ren’s jar.

• Hathaway said the divine weapon’s core changed after Hercules repeatedly drew on its power, cursing his mind and body and dispelling the hostile curse between him and the Demon Hunters.
• Hathaway revealed that Xivil discovered the core was a door to a dark world, then died after secretly opening a passage and drawing the attention of the force beyond it.
• Hathaway explained that she and her companions used the weapon to create a parallel space-time prison for Hercules and the core, while nine companions sacrificed themselves to activate the seal.
• Hathaway said escaped negative energy drove some ritualists mad, and Reinhardt set fire to the ritual site; she became undead, Master Mohabun aged overnight, and the village became cursed.
• The evil spirit thrashed inside Hao Ren’s jar, and a deep rumble sounded from the direction of the village.

Hao Ren and his companions rushed to the prison after the seal failed, where a horde of dark creatures began pouring out of the pit. With Master Mohabun burning his life force to reinforce the boundary, they fought the attackers as the darkness targeted them.

• A black-and-red pillar erupted from the pit, and Master Mohabun burned his life force and the remaining energy of nine Demon Hunters to oppose it.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Hathaway, Hesperis, and Lily raced toward the village on Lily’s giant Husky form as the seal’s sudden failure threatened the real world.
• They reached the pit and saw silver runes fading as darkness consumed the boundary, while Vivian sensed a hostile aura coming from below.
• Humanoid creatures crawled out of the darkness and surged toward the group; Hathaway explained that they were scouts taking form in the real world.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Hathaway, and Hesperis attacked the horde with bombs, bats, holy arrows, and fire as Vivian called Lily to join the fight.

Hao Ren and his companions fought to hold back the monsters pouring through the collapsing boundary while the dark-red pillar of light threatened to reach the real world. Nolan’s warship obliterated the battlefield with its cannons, but Vivian saw that the entity behind the pillar had survived.

• Hao Ren’s group retreated as the black tide overwhelmed the wilderness, and Vivian urged Hathaway and Hesperis to keep fighting while Hao Ren prepared a weapon.
• Lily rampaged through the monsters as Hao Ren and the Data Terminal analyzed the distorted space and prepared a ship guidance beacon.
• The final silver rune went out, the cavern split open, and the dark-red pillar of light grew stronger as its power began reaching toward reality.
• The Data Terminal completed its analysis, and Hao Ren used the beacon to summon the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• Nolan fired the warship’s secondary cannons, melting the black tide and turning the battlefield into a sea of magma.
• Vivian saw that the entity where the pillar had been was still alive and warned the others that the battle was not over.

Hao Ren and his allies confronted Hercules, who had emerged from the lava corrupted by the scepter and proved resistant to the starship’s weapons. The battle continued as Hao Ren realized he needed to separate the artifact from Hercules rather than simply destroy the giant.

• Hercules rose from the lava as a monstrous giant with the corrupted scepter embedded in his chest, and Hathaway explained that he had once volunteered to seal its power.
• Hao Ren stopped Nolan from firing the main cannon and ordered the drones to cover him as he charged Hercules.
• The drones and Vivian restrained Hercules’s shadow army while Hao Ren blasted away part of the giant’s head and shoulder with his service pistol.
• Hercules regenerated from the attack, and the fallen fragments became more shadow monsters, prompting Hao Ren to decide to remove the scepter first.